Equipment lenders urged to trim delays as customer financing expectations evolve
ELFA Convention 2026
PALM DESERT, Calif. — Manual processes and repeated document requests by equipment lenders are increasingly at odds with borrowers’ expectations for faster financing
Equipment finance companies have traditionally structured their processes around internal needs rather than the customer experience, David Normandin, president and chief executive of Wintrust Specialty Finance, said during a panel discussion today at the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s annual convention.
“The customer experience is a secondary piece of that,” he said.
That disconnect extends to application processing, Andrew Cotter, executive vice president and chief information officer at Somerset Capital Group, said during the panel, noting that customers increasingly expect progress over the weekend rather than waiting until Monday after a Friday submission.
Lenders also should reuse information they already possess, Cotter said.
“Our customers don’t want to keep feeding documents to us, or if we already have it, we should be able to use it, retain it, recycle it, whatever it may be internally, and not ask for the same thing over and over again,” he said.
Rethinking delivery
Meeting those expectations requires rethinking how financing reaches customers, Bill Verhelle, CEO of embedded lending platform and equipment fintech QuickFi, said during the panel. Traditional systems put employees online while leaving customers outside the process, he said.
Lenders should consider how AI could enable a different delivery model rather than simply adding tools to existing workflows, Verhelle said.
Still, human service carries different value across small-ticket vendor financing, middle-market and large-ticket transactions, Wintrust’s Normandin said.
Specialized expertise and helping customers resolve difficult problems can strengthen relationships, he said.
“When organizations step up and do the right thing, own their mistakes,” he said, “that has the tendency to build loyalty, and build relationship that carries forward.”
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